Tenboom
by mazberrypie
Summary: Fionna was already pretty tired of chopping up Blobs and she hadn't even made it to the Fred Meyers three blocks away from her store. A couple months ago, the thrill of being outside and getting some real action was enough to keep her hacking away at the jelly-turned-human-thingies, but right now she really just wanted to get her TP and go home. -Constructive criticism appreciated!


**AN: Wow I am the literal worst. I didn't come back with the fic I'm **_**supposed**_** to be working on, and this one is in a completely different fandom. Ugh. **

**Any who, this is an idea that I have had for AGES but I've never gotten around to actually writing it. (Actually I've been so picky about it that I've rewritten it like four times because it has to be just right.) I'm pretty proud of it, and I think y'all will like it. **

**I'm gonna set Wednesday as my official update day. If it gets to be Thursday and I haven't updated yet, feel free to yell at me in the reviews or even PM. I need tons of reminders or else I'll leave my poor baby to gather dust on my computer. **

**I'm planning to include a song (or verse of a song) in every chapter, some written by me some not. Sometimes a character will be singing, and sometimes the song just goes well with the chapter. As you can see by the title, this fic is be heavily influenced by the album Tenboom, by Penny & Sparrow. They are my new favorite band and I HIGHLY recommend checking out their website or their YouTube channel to listen to some of their music. **

**But not all the music will be from them, so I'll tell you where to look for each song in another AN at the bottom each chapter. I'm also gonna so a Question of the Week down there too, so check it out if you're interested. **

**Enough of me! On to the story.**

**Disclaimer: Guys, the name of the website is **_**fan**_**fiction. Is this even necessary anymore? I'm only gonna do this once cause if I try to do it every chapter I'll forget. However, any brand names I do not own, and I do not own the characters. Any songs (unless indicated otherwise) are not mine. **

_Tenboom_

Chapter 1: _Calamity Song_

_Had a dream, you and me and the war of the end times_

_And I believe California succumbed to the fault line_

_We heaved relief as scores of innocents died_

In the end, it was pretty anticlimactic. That is to say,** The End** was. Humanities quick and painful fall from grace was exactly what everyone saw coming. The world's powerhouses had been fighting over the few natural resources they hadn't already drained, and tearing up any of the smaller nations that got in their way. Then somebody got the genius idea to wipe out the Eastern Seaboard by dropping a couple nukes.

Typical.

Those who weren't instantly killed by the impact of the bombs were affected by the tons of radiation dumped into the atmosphere. Cancer became the new common cold, and people everywhere were falling sick. A strange winter storm took over most of Northern Europe, and the pole gained back the glaciers it had lost to human kind. Whether or not that was directly linked to the bombs, no one ever found out.

The mutations started soon after. People began turning into turn into glob-like creatures that could spread their strange illness through skin contact. It was almost like they had been pumped so full of radiation that their chemical makeup actually started to break down. The Blobs (as they became known) where mindless, practically zombies, but where luckily not driven by the need to devour human flesh or anything equally gross. Nevertheless, the Blobs were still highly aggressive, and moved in packs, targeting anyone who wasn't already infected or dead.

One of those lucky people who wasn't killed off within the first month or so of chaos was a young girl in Washington. Fionna ('two n's') was tough stuff. Two years before **The End**, Fionna ditched her fourth consecutive foster home and hit the streets, living off anything and everything she could find. Fionna learned real quick not to trust anyone but herself. And sometimes not even that. Even though she had only completed school through sixth grade, she was smart. In the ways that counted. She knew how to pick a lock with only an unraveled paper clip, and she knew exactly when her puppy dog eyes were gonna work on somebody. Not that she would use either unless it was absolutely necessary. Taking advantage of people made her feel slimy. But after a few dangerous encounters, Fionna learned that she needed to be able to defend herself and know how to fight dirty when needed.

When word of the explosions made it to the West Coast (which was really only a couple seconds after the bombs dropped) Fionna did what any self respecting street urchin would do in an apocalyptic scenario. She found a nice store abandoned in the panic and stayed put. And even though it seemed like **The End** would stop everything, life kept on going. Albeit in a new and very different way from before. Humanity has always had that nasty little habit of self preservation, and after centuries pushing through all their (self inflicted) problems, they always seemed to make it. It helped that this particular human was a bit more special than most. Fionna was strong, and street smart. Fionna was brave and amazingly honest and good. Fionna was a survivor.

* * *

Fionna was running low on toilet paper. You'd think that a Swanson's on the corner of a once busy intersection would be better stocked in the event of **The End** of the world, but that wasn't the case. It didn't help that she had run out of Kleenex weeks ago and had resorted to using TP to blow her always stuffy nose. It was that frickin' weird snow storm's fault. After turning Canada into a frozen wasteland, it had slowly but surely made its way toward the States. The cold kept Fionna in a perpetual state of sick, and that meant snot. So she decided that morning that it was time for a milk run.

Fionna found the biggest, scariest looking knife in the kitchen appliance section of the store and sharpened it to perfection. Blobs were big wimps and if you swung anything bigger than a butter knife at them, they would run off. Usually. She also dug through the clothes racks for a sweater and some gloves to wear. It wasn't that Fionna minded the cold, (she lived in Seattle for Pete's sake!) she just would rather not return home to a nice handful of frostbite. The world being stripped of medical professionals was a pain in the neck when you needed your arm amputated.

She grabbed the green backpack she was planning to fill with any supplies she managed to find before stopping in front of the automatic doors. They had stopped working right after all the power plants shut down and now if you wanted to opened them, you had to push against them really hard. But Fionna had stopped in anticipation more than anything else. After living outside for months, Fionna had grown to resent being stuck in doors and every time she went out it was a treat. But being out in the open always made her a little uneasy. There was no way all the radiation had burned off yet, and Blobs were all over the place. Take six billion people and turn 99.9998% of them into sticky zombies and you get huge crowds of monsters. Though Fionna prided herself in being super tough, even the bravest person on Earth would admit that the Blobs freaked the heck out of them.

Fionna adjusted her grip on her weapon of (limited) choice, and began leaning heavily on the doors. When they gave a loud groan of protest, she stopped short, freezing with her hands tightly wrapped around her knife. Silently reminding herself to cover the hinges with that cool spray-able Crisco next chance she got, Fionna continued her fight against the now useless doors. Nothing else stirred, and the doors had stopped creaking, leaving Fionna to lecture herself quietly.

"Don't be such a wimp. You're just getting some toilet paper. And maybe some chips… But mainly toilet paper."

After that inspiring speech, she set out into the suspiciously quiet city.

* * *

Fionna was already pretty tired of chopping up Blobs and she hadn't even made it to the Fred Meyers three blocks away from her store. A couple months ago, the thrill of being outside and getting some real action was enough to keep her hacking away at the jelly-turned-human-thingies, but right now she really just wanted to get her TP and go home. It wasn't like she had provoked the stupid things, they had just come tromping around the corner and attacked.

By the time she got to the supermarket and had slung her knife through the door handles to keep the Blobs out, she was pooped. This pack had been strangely eager in their pursuit, and a few even took to banging on the door for a little while. Fionna gave the doors an annoyed punch, with the attitude of someone trying to get a bug off their window, before turning back to the task at hand. She quickly grabbed a broom to replace her weapon in the door handles. Rule #8 of **The End**, don't leave your sharp object behind unless absolutely necessary. Slinging her backpack off her shoulders, Fionna began wandering down the aisle, looking for the item she had left her safe haven for.

Somewhere between the candy section and the magazines reading off scandals about celebrities no one had cared about in a year, it occurred to Fionna that she should just stay here. There was plenty of food, and probably some beds back in the furniture section. She could easily wash off in the bathrooms, and there was no way she was going to run out of toilet paper anytime soon. The more she thought about it, the better it began to sound. Maybe she could even scrounge up some batteries and put them in some of the old gaming systems. There would always be something to do and plenty of space to do it in. It was as close to perfect as Fionna was going to get.

Just as she began to settle into the idea of staying in the Fred Meyers, Fionna heard the unmistakable sound of breaking glass. Fionna pulled her knife out of the makeshift belt she kept around her waist, throwing herself into a fighting stance that even a professional martial artist would be proud of. Quietly dragging her feet across the floor, she glanced out from behind a display case, searching for the source of the noise.

Standing near freezer section was, amazingly enough, people. Real, human people. A librarian-looking woman stood with her arm wrapped around a young boy who couldn't be older than seven. Though it didn't really register at the time, if Fionna had been paying attention she would have noticed that the boy was a sickly shade of green and the women unusually pale and much too young for her shock of white hair. The boy held a stuffed fox in his hand, and he was looking sheepishly down at a broken milk bottle at his feet. The women ruffled his hair and looked like she was about to speak before a loud crash came from the front of the store. The familiar sound of Blobs began echoing off the empty walls.

Fionna cursed quietly, the broom seemed to have not held the doors as well as she had hoped. There went her grand plan of living easy.

She made herself known by walking up to the startled duo, holding a finger to her lips.

"We should probably sneak out of the back door if we want to avoid a fight." She jerked her head in the general direction of the exit.

"It's no use." The women whispered back in a faintly Russian accent. "We were chased in that way. There will Blobs out there still."

Fionna groaned, trying to think of another exit.

"Okay, I'm pretty sure this place has a rooftop parking lot. If we get up there then we can sneak down the ramp and get away."

The women gave her a serious nod, grabbing the boys hand and pulling him along gently. Fionna walked a few paces ahead of the duo, checking around corners to make sure there weren't any Blobs lurking.

They made their way up the frozen escalator with no problem, and slipped out the upper door. Once they were out on the roof, they all took a moment to release their tensed muscles.

"Where are we gonna go now?" The boy asked, speaking for the first time. He seemed a little wary of Fionna, and was pointedly ignoring her.

"Do you two have anywhere to stay?" Fionna tightened the straps on her backpack, and little weirded out by the kid's coldness.

"Well," The women gave the closed door a wistful look, "We had hoped to stay here."

Fionna scratched the back of her neck awkwardly, trying to decide her next move.

"I've got a Swanson's down the corner that I've been staying in. It's really secure, and I've booby trapped all the doors. It's not paradise, but it's warm and there are a couple mattresses in the back." Fionna spit out in a rush. "Maybe you could spend the night? Or stay at least until you figure out where you're gonna go next?

"Oh we wouldn't want to intrude…" The women began, before Fionna interrupted.

"You guys are the first people I've seen in months. It's the least I could do to help some fellow refugees. And it's just me, so there's plenty of room for two more."

"Well," The little boy was shaking his head up at the women, wrinkling his nose in displeasure. "It couldn't hurt for just a few nights, right Marsh?"

'Marsh' turned his attention to Fionna for the first time since the milk spill. "How do we know we can trust you?" He questioned suspiciously.

Fionna gave him an imploring look. "Well, I could have left you guys back in the store, or even gotten you out but not invite you to my secret lair, but I didn't. So I guess you're just gonna have to figure that out for yourself, kid."

Marsh seemed mostly satisfied with that answer, enough so to follow when Fionna began leading them down the ramp and toward her home. Halfway there, he let go of his (mom? sister? distant cousin?)'s hand and ran up alongside Fionna.

"So it's really your secret lair?" He asked, trying to match the older girls stride. Fionna chuckled.

"Yeah man. I even put a bucket full of super glue above one of the doors so if anyone tries to get it, they'll get glued."

"_Cooool_." Staring up at her in awe, Marsh walked quietly for a few seconds before tugging again on her sweater sleeve. "Why were you at the Fred Meyer's if you have sucha awesome house?"

Fionna suddenly remember the goal of this outing and slapped herself in the face. "Crap! I forgot to grab toilet paper!"

"No problem!" Marsh gave her a toothy smile. "Simone has tons of toilet paper in her backpack! Like, too much toilet paper."

The women in question caught up to the pair, giving them both a smile. "Looks like this was meant to be."

Fionna gave her a faint smile. "Seems so."

**AN: Sooooo, what do you think? I know, I usually don't do AU's but this one was too juicy to resist. This is about five pages long on Google Docs, I think I'll stick around there length-wise. Maybe longer if I can't cut it off. Feel free to ask me questions via PM or in the reviews. **

**SotC: Calamity Song, by The Decemberist. Excellent song of an excellent album by an excellent band. I think it fits, don't you?**

**QotW: It's more of a scavenger hunt! If you are the first to find the quote from Once Upon A Time, I will dedicate the next chapter to you and give you a virtual hug because you watch good TV shows!**


End file.
